Twitch: Overrated or Underrated Jungler?

There has been talk about Jungle Twitch having “hidden” potential as a jungler and being able to terrorize lanes and carry his team. He has always been very much of a pubstomp champion whether he is in a lane or in the jungle but does he have what it takes to be a serious pick in break neck levels of play?

Ever since a few EU players have busted him out and reigned havoc on their opponents using jungle twitch I’ve been getting messages and requests to talk about Twitch and give my thoughts on him. Well for starters I had a few talks with people and tinkered around with Twitch myself and I can easily say all the hype around him is both true and exaggerated.

To make this very blunt, Twitch is a terrible jungler. He is not capable of jungling by himself with any real benefit and needs heavy assistance to do anything. He is a character very reliant on amplification (leashing, lane mate assistance, buffs) in order to do anything. This is what gives him a low jungle score and a low placement on my tier list. The claims that he is an “amazing jungler” are exaggerated and rather stupid. If he is to jungle then he would only be excelling at one thing and that would be ganking!

That brings us to the next point. Twitch is an awful jungler but his ganking is almost without rival. His long term stealth gives him so many ganking options and causes paranoia to engulf his enemies. You can’t really ward against Twitch since pink wards are expensive (and likely not obtained by top and mid) and even if pink wards are bought they need to be placed perfectly or en masse to deal with Twitch which further complicates the issue for the solo laners. Even then if a Twitch player knows how to read lanes they would be able to guess where the pink wards are and dupe them and cause even more chaos. Twitch raises the ward requirement for the lanes by almost double the amount.

A few EU players have been using Twitch at the highest of elos (Syforce RaT4LIF3 for instance) and terrorizing players. It has been used in some scrims and even in some rounds for tournaments as well giving it some validity in serious play.

So with these hurdles the character has been able to jump is it possible that Twitch is a potential top level jungler? It could be that he is a strong jungler or it could be that he’s simply a gimmick. If you recall Jungle Pantheon seeing play some time ago after Goose brought it out people praised it as a very strong “top tier” jungler for awhile. However most of this was just some rushed bandwagon praise as Jungle Pantheon quickly faded even after his big splash. It is always the case with new things will surprise players and may win due to that element but after players become accustomed those tactics will fall short. This is something I feel Twitch may go through. Twitch has his amazing ganking but every other jungle aspect is below average at best so if players find ways to hinder that ganking prowess then Twitch will have nothing to fall back on.

As said previously in this post, Jungle Twitch is also heavily reliant on amplifiers. He strictly needs the help of his team to not fall apart. He needs a proper leash at whatever buff he wants to start in and his teammates have to be competent during his ganks so he’s not left to die as it is very easy to kill an exposed Twitch even if he caught the enemy by surprise (but is not fed).

Some people also brought up Evelyn and asked why Twitch would have an advantage over her. Well for starters Twitch is a ranged character and has more means of dealing damage while in relative safety. He also has a ranged “AoE” slow as well as ranged spells. Eve and Twitch can’t compare outside of their stealth powers.

Now for what some of you may have been waiting for. These are the builds that were given to me by players who are more experienced at Twitch than I am.

There are two rune pages that Twitch players swap between. One page is for when they aren’t sure of their teammates help while another is when they trust their teammates. Left is for paranoia and right is for trust.

Red Runes – Attack Damage Red

Yellow Runes – Armor Yellow or Attack Speed Yellow

Blue Runes – Magic Resistance or Attack Speed Blue

Quints – Attack Damage or Lifesteal

Masteries are 21 in offense and 9 in defense BUT bladed armor is not taken and instead the health bonus is chosen. Having more health gives Twitch a chance to not be instantly fried by some casters.

As you can see there is no armor pen outside of the masteries. Twitch is relying heavily on his early game going well and dealing the most damage to soft delicious targets.

As for items I was given two builds. The first build is if Twitch is used for the traditional jungle role and made to gank and murder while the other build is if Twitch is to be the sole AD carry of the team later in the game.

Doran’s Blade x2 (start with one or boots but get 2 at some point)

Boots – Berserker’s Greaves/Boots of Mobility

Zeal – Phantom Dancer

BF Sword – Infinity Edge

BF Sword – Bloodthirster/Black Cleaver

Guardian Angel

Doran’s Blade (or boots to start)

Boots – Berserker’s Greaves

Zeal

BF Sword – Infinity Edge

Phantom Dancer

BF Sword – Bloodthirster/Blackcleaver

Guardian Angel

I wasn’t told as to why Phantom Dancer is bought before Infinity Edge for a non AD carry jungle Twitch other than it’s for positioning purposes and to help your ganking mid game as players start becoming faster.

Anyways Jungle Twitch seems to be a very potent solo queue pick and can definitely terrorize other players and carry his team. Whether he becomes competitive is another story but he definitely has a niche of evil that he can fill. His “incredible” power will only last until suitable counters are discovered but that will only happen if he is played by more people. Go and cause some chaos with the rat!

If you read this, You'll understand why Twitch is so broken in the jungle I have about an 80% win rate with him, Run flat AS runes, (Yes, I mean 38%, Runes across the board, get a leash at red, gank, profit. You will either force a flash/ghost/heal or they will die, End of story.

Thanks for the video! Twitch seems like a fun champ and it's nice to know that he can succeed and that you can win with him. I think one issue many serious players have is, we look at tier lists and rankings and think "if I want to win I have to play Lee Sin," but if you really want to play something like twitch jungle or nunu jungle for fun you can play those champs and win games. The main issue is consistency I suppose.

Phantom Dancer before Infinity Edge because the core of Twitch's damage early game comes from applying stacks of Deadly Poisin and Expunge. Additionally, none of Twitch's abilities actually scale based on AD.

i completely understand. i think many new junglers (like my self) want to step it up and are just looking for the basics of more optimal decision making when we pick/counter pick. thanks for the reply!

I think that Twitch as a character is underpowered, BUT the fact that he causes an excess of wards to be purchased nerfs the ememy's ability to enter mid and late game as fast. If you have 4 other strong sources of damage twitch can be amazing. Otherwise he is underpowered and far less viable unless fed.

I've actually watched Saintvicious play twitch constantly in the last two weeks in Korea using Twitch more as a counterjungling and invading nightmare. He almost never ganks because everyone pinks and instead just farms the jungle. After an initial leash on blue/red, he seems to do fine speed and sustain-wise. I'm going to relook at your rankings of twitch to see what you think his farming problem is before I can say much more.

Whether you look at the rankings and go "these are wrong" you'll quickly find out that you yourself is wrong. The graph shows their prowess in those aspects without assistance. It is to display what their weaknesses as a jungler are and what you must overcome in some way. In this case his lack of speed and survivability is overcome by having your hand held by your teammates and getting some murder gold.

sorry if I came off the wrong way stonewall. I agree with you. I just wanted to relook at your ratings of twitch. It was more of just giving an example of some things you didnt mention in the article such as early invade and counter-jungling. I realize his sustain is terrible without leashing.